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Out Magazine's Founder Resigns Amid Dispute

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A longstanding disagreement over business strategy at Out Publishing Inc. has led to the resignation of Michael Goff, the founder of Out magazine, one of the most influential and widely read gay and lesbian publications in the nation.

Mr. Goff relinquished the titles of president and editor in chief on Jan. 26, after spending two years trying to reconcile what he said were "very different ideas about where the company should go" with Robert Hardman, the chairman and majority shareholder of Out Publishing.

They weren't interested in moving ahead and I wasn't interested in staying still," Mr. Goff said. "The best use of my time is not micro-managing the paper clips."

Besides producing the magazine 11 times a year, Out Publishing, which is based in Manhattan, has been involved in books and compact disks and has a site on the World Wide Web (http://www.out.com).

While investors have yet to recoup their money, but Mr. Goff said the four-year-old magazine should be in the black late this year or in early 1997. Only last summer, he was speaking about "aggressive growth," capitalizing on Out as the "strongest brand, with the best reputation, in the gay and lesbian market."

But Mr. Hardman, who said he had invested about $4 million in the company, favored a more cautious approach. "It's not a difference in vision as much as it's a matter of how fast do we go," he said.

Mr. Goff, 30 years old, said he would continue to be the second-largest shareholder in the company and would begin writing a column in the magazine. "I'm going to keep the title of founder," he said. "I'm proud to be on the masthead."

Henry E. Scott, a former general manager of the magazine, has succeeded Mr. Goff as president. Sarah Pettit, who has been the editor of Out, is expected to succeed Mr. Goff as editor in chief.

"There's always been a compelling argument for having something larger than a single-title company," Ms. Pettit said. "But there's a renewed sense that the brand name is the magazine and that until the magazine is fully aloft and strong, it's not wise to assume we can do massively more."

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Ms. Pettit said she hoped "to highlight the more serious aspects" of the magazine, which has been criticized for an emphasis on entertainment and style, even though it also features substantive reporting on gay and lesbian issues.

Out had a paid circulation of 94,125 in the six months that ended in June, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The Advocate, its closest rival, had a circulation of 72,536 in the same period.

Since its founding in 1992, Out has been identified largely with Mr. Goff and Ms. Pettit. But the recent imbroglio highlighted the role of Mr. Hardman, a 47-year-old copy editor at The Boston Globe.

The Hardman family had owned The Transcript, a daily newspaper in North Adams, Mass., since 1898. When they sold the paper in 1976 to Affiliated Publications Inc., then the owners of The Boston Globe, family members received shares of Affiliated stock and Mr. Hardman went to work for The Globe. Affiliated's 1981 investment in McCaw Communications, a cellular phone company, turned into a "fabulous payoff" for stockholders, Mr. Hardman said.

In 1991, Mr. Hardman learned of the impending financial demise of Outweek, a gay magazine, and asked Roger Black, a longtime friend and a prominent magazine designer, whether he should try to help bail it out. Instead, Mr. Black suggested that Mr. Hardman talk with Mr. Goff, who was working for Mr. Black and nurturing the idea of a national magazine for gay men and lesbians.

"It was Michael Goff's dream," Mr. Hardman said. "He's the one who made it come true. I'm grateful because he took my investment and produced exactly what I'd hoped would happen, and more.

"I started out approaching it half as a charity," he added. "It was Michael who understood the possibility of its being a real business."

A version of this article appears in print on February 5, 1996, on Page D00007 of the National edition with the headline: Out Magazine's Founder Resigns Amid Dispute. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe